buggin me

Here's a few things that are bugging me. Since no one really reads this, I figured it's safe to vent here:) People who cannot use proper English. Not King's English, just plain grammatically correct English. For example, in Carson's 2nd grade classroom at a class party, I overheard the following convo...teacher's aide/parent "There ain't no more. Oh, (embarrassed face) I mean, 'There's NOT no more'!" I hope that they saw my disgusting face as a reaction to Ben's crying, and not at the fact that I was actually biting my tongue to keep from correcting her. There's always stuff on FB that irritates me too, like people incorrectly using their/they're/there wrong, and using the word "whom" when it is never called for. As in "Whom knows what time the movie starts?" At least when I read that, I can scream at the computer screen in the privacy of my own home. Not that I have perfect grammar, but GEEZ!
Another thing bugging me is a few people whom (haha, see how it doesn't remotely sound correct) constantly post quotes on Pinterest that are quotes about living righteously by members of our Church. Not that the quotes aren't absolutely wonderful and true...but here's my problem. One of my friends posted a wonderful quote about being as quick to kneel as we are to text. After she found out it was from our Church, she deleted it. BOOO! It was perfectly ok until she found out the author. Seems pretty ridiculous to admire a quote to the point that you share it with everyone you know, but then it becomes an atrocity when you discover the author?! I was surprised how irritated it made me that someone could be so....ignorant. It reminds me of how my kids loved my new pizza recipe unitl they discovered it was *gasp* healthy! I guess I should be happy that they liked the info, even if it was for a brief period of time. Either way, I haven't clued her in that the other 6 pins were totally from General Conference :)
And finally...Italian Chicken Sandwhiches. What the heck, BURGER KING!? Sometimes they carry them, and then as soon as they appear, they discontinue them. GRRR! They're so yummy and I haven't been able to replicate them at home. Deliciousness shouldn't be cancelled!

It's the MOST wonderful time of the year!

How many Christmas movies can the Brown's watch in a week? So far we've watched Fred Claus, Four Christmases, The Grinch with Jim Carrey, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Elf on the Shelf (who knew there was a movie), Home Alone 2 (we don't have the first one), Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Elf, Miracle on 34th Street (the old awesome one with Maureen O'Hara), It's a Wonderful Life, Shrek the Halls, Mickey's Christmas Carol, Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas, Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, Muppet Christmas Carol, Ice Age a Mammoth Christmas...and all in a week. Because we had the stomach flu and a DVR. And some we've managed to watch several times. Being tethered to a couch, blanket, and bowl makes it easier I guess, but we all definitely have the Christmas movies down. Tree is up. Stockings are hung with care. We're out of hot chocolate already. Trans Siberian Orchestra cd has been playing. Lights are up outside. Kids Christmas cd has been playing. I'm ready for the Chipmunk Christmas song to have a scratch on it! We've got several Christmas craft projects in the works, thanks to Pinterest, but I'm still waiting to feel Christmas-y. I'm hoping the Living Nativity will help. It's pretty awesome. My kids call it the drive thru Jesus. This church in town builds a replica of the city of Bethlehem every year and they give you hot chocolate and a cd that narrates the story as you drive through. They even have live camels, which my kids think is awesome. I guess it just usually seems crazier and busier right before Christmas, but this year isn't, so it's a little odd feeling. I'm excited for the boys to see all their cousins. We are going to Laredo to see Daniel's brothers and sister and all of his siblings are going to be in one place, which used to be the norm, but hasn't been that way for over a year. Some of them have never seen Ben and he's over a year old, and by the way, decided today to stand up and walk across the room alone. Maybe he read my mind because I was thinking of taking him to the doctor. I'm not excited about the drive, but we are breaking it up with a trip to Six Flags, and on the way home we're stopping in Dallas to see my aunts, uncles, cousins, my cousins kids, and my grandmother, who will all be in one place, which I don't think has happened in a decade. Definitely won't be a White Christmas...oooh, I think I have that on DVD and we haven't watched it this year. If that fails, I guess we have to follow Buddy the Elf's advice. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. For everyone else's sake, I hope it doesn't come to that. I'm not exactly a songbird :)

how random my kids are...

So we had tithing settlement tonight with our Bishop. He wrapped up the discussion by asking the boys if they had any questions. Peyton replied "YES! How old do I have to be to be a grown up? And what do you think I should become when I grow up?" Bishop suggested fireman and he declined. That was the start of a very weird car ride home. Peyton told the story of the first Thanksgiving, Squanto, and pilgrims and Indians complete with details of how many adults got sick and died, leaving kids all alone. His Thanksgiving story ended up sounding remarkably like the Lord of the Flies. The subject changed to missionaries (thanks Carson) and Carson told us that he'd go on a mission even if he got hit by a car. This led to "How exactly do you die when you get hit by a car?" and I found myself explaining how the brain sends signals to the rest of your body's organs. *SIGH* THEN Peyton had a hypothetical question "What happens if you fight with someone, kick and hit them and they fall INTO the road and get hit by a car. Do you get in trouble? Do you have to talk to the Bishop for a long time, like ALL DAY? " At this point Carson interjected and told Peyton he'd go to "Juvee" which made me lol. He thought I thought he was making it up, so he proceeded to tell me the life story of Louis Armstrong, who evidently spent a brief period of time at a juvenile detention facility. That's what happens when you have four boys in a car for 20 minutes. Hope you enjoyed the rambling as much as I did :)

You know what stinks? Finally updating your blog after 3 months and having it delete itself not once, not twice, but THREE times. Not a fan. Anyways, at least it was therapeutic for me to write everything out. Stupid ctrl shortcuts :(

if I ever look exhausted....here's why:

Things overheard at the Brown home:
-"It doesn't matter if he took one of your invisible Go Fish cards, they're invisible...don't punch him, just pretend you have more"
-"Well, ARE you a girl? Ok then."-Mom
-"Dont' jump off of that! No, you cannot fly. Nope, not even with cardboard wings. Because you aren't really a grey slider flying squirrel"-Mom
-"No nunchucks in the house!" (obviously, that's an OUTside toy)-Dad
-"That's what happens when you don't listen!"-Dad
-"WHY aren't you wearing any underwear?!" (probably a whole sub category for the ones that start with "where". We can never find anything)
-"Mom, I need wood glue so I can make this block of wood into a surfboard and try it out in the pond"-Carson (the inventor)
-"Mom, why does the mom on 101 Dalmations get so mad at Cruella deVille for smoking, but Roger can smoke a pipe?"-Carson
followed by...
-"Mom, why don't they just GIVE her one of those dogs? They've GOT a hundred of them!"-Peyton didn't quite understand the movie
-"Mooooom, I need you to make me a ninja mask"-Peyton
-"Do not bend his arm (or leg, or neck, or finger) that way!"-said daily
-"Mom, whatsa for nunch?"-Ryan, he's in a slight Italian accent phase
-"Dad, you in MY house?"-Ryan waking up from nap to find Daniel at home
-"I wike to moob it moob it"-Ryan singing "Move it Move it"
-"I come in pieces"-Peyton said this to the librarian on the summer reading registration day...with his hands in Star Trek sign...and his eyelids flipped inside out
-Jackrabbit vs Dragon fight (Carson and Peyton) "Fine, I'll rub my fluffy tail on you (sits on Peyton and rubs his butt on him) Peyton shoves him off and replies "So, I'll set your tail on fire" (breathes pretend fire)
-"Mom, who is Lee Bron James"-Carson

so I'm not a good blogger

For those of you who read this (Johanna) I'm getting better at remembering my password, so that will help, and my neato little Blackberry has an app for keeping passwords, so I MAY actually get better at this, but don't count on it. What's been going on? NOTHING. And I love it! My boys have said some funny-ish stuff. Like our Presidents Day FHE. I got ambitious and tried to go solo since Daniel had a meeting at work for some dumb reason. Regardless, I decided it should be about being honorable and telling the truth and Presidents. Good in theory only. I told the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. Before I got to the part about telling the truth I had Carson asking who would give a kid an axe (what irresponsible parents!) and Peyton begging for an axe and not accepting "You're five" as an answer. Fast forward to yesterday in the car on the way home from Edyn's baptism. Carson fibbed about being buckled up and Daniel said "Carson, I don't like lies" Peyton chimed in "Yeah, like Abraham Lincoln" After some confusion, Carson clarified to us (giving us the "you are an idiot" face) that Abe Lincoln chopped down the cherry tree and lied about it. Well, at least they got the idea even if they got the wrong guy. Poor Honest Abe. Carson told me he told his friend about baptism. Originally the friend said "That sounds boring, I don't want to talk about it" but good ole Carson sold him on the idea by telling him how awesome it is and you get to go under water. He also told us we are holding him back: the song says "I hope they call me on a mission, when I have grown a foot or two" He says he is over two feet tall and he should be going already. My very literal middle aged 7 year old. They also have their own very distinct styles of humor. Exhibit A: Carson thinks the Uranus jokes are awesome. He likes to ask people which planet is the gasiest. Thanks Aunt Beck. Peyton is more fun to watch in action. Exhibit B:He discovered the Pete and Repeat jokes. He does great until you actually say "Repeat" and instead of repeating the joke he says "ok, I'll repeat it..." and gives his super cheesy embarrassed big tooth Peyton grin that I love so much. They crack me up. Ryan is just as funny, but he is definitely a Daddy's boy. I don't want to say he's Daniel's favorite, but, well, yeah. Sorta. He walks around saying "Swipe your nose, Swipe your nose" This only makes sense if you are a Dora fan and you understand that he really means "Swiper, No Swiping". He hates potty training and totally panics if he isn't wearing pants. So if you take his pants off and try to let him run around naked...not gonna happen. I tried putting him in underwear alone so I wouldn't have a ton of pants to wash....nope, he found Peyton's pajamas in the drawer and put them on. Not awesome. He was doing great until he asked to go to the potty at Walmart and the auto flush toilet scared the crap into him...literally. He wouldn't go #2 for a few days after that experience. Ben is just a great baby. He flinches instinctively anytime his brothers come close, which is probably a good thing. He hates being on his stomach and his head is starting to show the signs of it. He also likes eating baby food, but not applesauce. What the heck?! That's the best. He even ate peas, but not applesauce! He also looks like Daniel 100%. I had absolutely nothing to do with his genetic code. But that's cool because Ryan is the boy version of me. I would show photo evidence if I knew how to get pictures off of my Blackberry, but I'm not so good at using my new phone.
Daniel had a sales conference in Texas so I got to keep all four boys by my lonesome Sun to Wed and it was blah. I survived. I didn't enjoy him being away, but I DID enjoy Ramen noodle dinners. It also helped that we went to the temple in Memphis the weekend before Daniel left. Always helps to be in a good frame of mind when you take four boys and try to sit through church.
As for me, I've been going to Provident Living classes on Tues at church and learning how to do awesome stuff with food storage and money saving tips. I love it. I didn't think I would until I ordered some cans of bell pepper on sale and they jumped in price from 50 cents each to 1.70 each. Go me...I don't have to buy those. I took a portion of our tax refund and we now have a 3 month supply of food, which also made me plan a monthly meal menu. Note: make sure you have a place to put 3 months worth of food in your Walmart cart. Ryan got booted out of the buggy and had to walk, which was VERY eventful to put it nicely. Additional note: make sure you have the cabinet space for aforementioned food as well. Ok, so that should catch me up, right?

snow day!

Theoretically speaking, I will be updating on Sundays.....maybe. It's snowing!!! I can be excited about it right now because the kids haven't gone outside, then inside, then back outside, etc. That will happen tomorrow because school is cancelled. Waiting on laundry right now....exciting! Carson's basketball games started Saturday. He is on a team with three boys from church and some other kids I don't know yet, but they all seem to have fun together. Peyton thinks now that he's five he can do anything he wants. He tries to make his own peanut butter sandwhiches, pour his own lemonade (both bad messy ideas), and he also decided that he was in Carson's primary class (also a bad idea). Ryan is a dancing machine. For New Years Eve, we went to a party where we all played Just Dance 2 on the Wii. Ever since then, he has been dancing anytime he hears music. That game is super fun. He memorized two of the dances (Viva Las Vegas and I've Got the Power) and tries hard to do the moves accurately. He is so smart. Reminds me of how Carson was at that age. Carson also loves that game, but hates songs that are "for girls", so of course, I made him dance to "It's Raining Men". Boy do I regret that! We were in Walmart and passed through the underwear aisle. There was a man posing for what appeared to be a thong for men and he looked at me and said "Wow, that's inappropriate" then proceeded to bust into song, singing....yep, you guessed it "It's Raining Men, Hallelujah" We may need to start a blog for things Carson says in Walmart underwear aisles, or at least avoid that aisle. Ben is growing up fast and likes to smile at Carson, but not so much the other boys. Other random stuff: The stomach flu that we thought we have been passing for the past two and a half months is not a stomach flu, but is actually contaminated beef from the cow we had butchered. BOOOO! At least we know how to stop the stomach issues everyone has had, but that was our food storage. OH wait, we had thousands of blackbirds fall dead from the sky here in Beebe on New Years Eve and everyone thinks it's the end of the world. Very weird incident, but I don't care because there are probably 5,000 more sitting in every single tree by the boys school and I'm really not exaggerating. A few thousand won't be missed! We had Stake Conference and I kept the Anderson boys for the Saturday night meeting. We made homemade cheezits out of chickpeas, wheat flour, and cheese. They loved using the cookie cutters and the crackers weren't bad. It might help if the top of my oven worked, crackers taste better if they are crunchy. We also watched the Razorbacks play in the Sugar Bowl and they lost, so Daniel was quite upset. It was down to the wire and the Hogs made some dumb mistakes, so there was yelling at the tv. Laundry is done, so it's time for sleep!